Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1

In Beethoven’s first piano concerto, we begin to hear the composer step away from imitation and into his own true voice; Orli Shaham performs this daring concerto. Schumann’s “Rhenish” symphony was inspired by a happy vacation along Germany’s Rhine river, and its music glitters with sunlight. Guest conductor Kristiina Poska — “an iron baton in a velvet hand” (Diapason) — opens this program with music from fellow Estonian Ülo Krigul, who notes that his Proteus Pulse “derives its flows and pulsations from an old Greek God of Waters."